


No One Is Invincible.

by arielgryffinpuff



Series: Tumblr Stony Prompts: CapxTony [10]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Breathe of Life, Gen, Getting Together, Hospitalization, Injury, M/M, Pining, protecting each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-03-05 16:15:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13391511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arielgryffinpuff/pseuds/arielgryffinpuff
Summary: Tony and Steve go on a dangerous mission. Tony does what he has to to keep everyone as safe as possible. Steve has to deal with the only person not safe by that equation, who just so happens to be the man he's in love with.Based on 3 prompts for each chapter.





	1. I'm not gonna let yourself get killed!

“Steve-” Tony called, in the middle of shooting an enemy with his gauntleted hand.

But Steve was pushing forward. He didn’t seem to listen.

“Steve, listen to me,” he landed roughly in front of the captain, who seemed to be quite determined.

“Tony-”

“I can handle the explosives, now get out of here and get everyone to safety,” Tony tried ordering Steve; he should’ve known it wouldn’t have worked.

Steve followed him, as they fought with more of the troops guarding the collection of bombs they had illegally been keeping (and making).

Tony saw Friday trying to read the signature on the bombs, which were in the next room, he could see through his infrared. They were too late for most of them. But the most explosive one, the radioactive one, that was the real catastrophe if it got blown up with the others. Tony had to deactivate it.

“Steve, I just have to defuse one, so-”

“No, it’s too risky!” Steve said indignantly, retrieving his shield, as he shoved down the door and stared at the complicated mechanics on the wall. There were no civilians in the near vicinity, but the other avengers were around here somewhere. As long as they could stop the one, their mission would be completed. He approached forward.

“Steve, I’m not gonna let yourself get killed!” Tony said angrily through his suit, stepping in front as he turned around and put a hand on Steve’s chest to stop him going further, Steve flaring his nostrils stubbornly.

“Tony, I can take the blow-”

“I’m made out of Iron, Steve. And, I know how to defuse a bomb.”

Time was running out. Steve grabbed Tony’s wrist, and just looked at Tony in fear, and shaking his head in disbelief.

“I have to,” Tony said, activating his beamer in his hand.

“No!” There was a _bomb_. Lots of little ones too, and who knows how dangerous! Did that escape his _notice_?!

Through his panic he didn’t really register the pain, but saw the light beaming out of Tony’s hand as he beamed full power on Steve’s chest, sending him flying far backwards in extraordinary speed. Steve reached out to him but it was too late.

Tony hated seeing the look of hurt, betrayal on Steve’s face, but he had to do it. He turned his concentration onto defusing the big bomb, on neutralising its contents, as the other machines around him beeped more quickly.

\--

Steve saw the metal suit on the floor as soon as he could sit up.

Well, parts of it anyway.

“Tony!” He cried out, not able to stop the panic from blanketing his voice. He saw the door leading outside (more like a hole blown in the wall) and he saw more of the pieces and followed it out into the blinding sun.

“Tony? Iron Man, come in!” Steve called wildly, looking around but not being able to find anything. They were outside the rogue enemy building that had been mainly subdued before the bombs exploded, and now, outside the other end of the building, there were bits flying everywhere, raining down the destruction caused.

He suddenly saw Tony from short distance away, fighting with another guy.

Then Tony was down on the ground as Steve ran towards him, and he knocked the enemy soldier out the way with a hard throw of his shield.

He went over to Tony but he was still, motionless on the ground, and Steve knelt down next to him.

“Tony? Can you hear me?” He shook his shoulders, but he didn’t respond.

Then he heard Natasha’s voice through the comms.

“All bombs have been taken care of, radiation neutralised, come in.” he tapped on his cracked watch, surprised it still worked.

“Guys, I need medics, quinjet, _stat_ ,” he called through to them.

Steve tried to keep his cool.

“Cap? Are you with Stark?” Natasha’s busy voice rang through, but he couldn’t see anyone when he looked around, he only saw smoke, debris, and heard distant fighting.

“Yea, I’m with him, he set off – he, Nat, Tony, he- he’s not responding,” he said, and he shook him again.

“Tony! Come on, please,” he said worriedly, and put his head to his chest where he kept his thermal under-suit on. He thought he could hear a faint heartbeat. He then put his face close to Tony’s, but he couldn’t feel breath there. He waited. He wasn’t breathing.

“Tony,” he breathed, beginning to panic. He pressed his comms to his ear.

“He’s not breathing!” He exclaimed, but he could only hear buzzing through the other side, meaning the others were in combat, “Guys?”

“Captain Rogers, are you able to perform CPR rescue breathing?” Friday’s cool voice filtered through a fractured bit of Tony’s suit somewhere.

“Y-yes – I – I can do that,” he said, and leaned over Tony, holding onto his shoulders, and tilting back his head and chin, prompting his mouth open. The time to put his training into practice was now. He breathed in deeply.

But this was the first time he had ever touched Tony’s lips with his own, and he never would have expected it to be like this.


	2. "Don't you die on me!"

Steve tilted Tony’s head back and held his chin open, and pinched his nose, and his throat made a weird kind of twitch.

“Tony? Dammit!”

It was as if there was something stuck in his throat, but he’d run out of breath. Steve was doubtful, but he had to try anything he could. He pried Tony’s mouth open, couldn’t even stop to appreciate his lips, as he nervously bent down. He sucked in a powerful breath, rested on Tony’s lips and blew into his mouth.

And again.

“Tony, come on,” he shook his shoulders again, “Don’t you _die on me_!”

He leant down again, now hearing calls through the comms, but he didn’t care. He shot a powerful breath through Tony’s lips, and the breath went straight down his throat, getting past what was stuck in his windpipe, and sending oxygen to his lungs.

“You can’t…you can’t die on me,” Steve said with a broken voice. He hadn’t told him. He hadn’t had a chance to…

Steve stared as Tony’s throat started convulsing, but he still hadn’t opened his eyes.

“Tony?” He said, panicked. He shook his shoulders again, and bent down, but Tony suddenly flinched in his grasp. Steve manoeuvred to sit behind Tony, holding him in his lap.

“Ok,” Steve breathed. _Remember your training._

He adjusted his hands into one first and he thrust towards him, just below Tony’s diaphragm, moving upwards, and his torso convulsed again. Doing the Heimlich manoeuvre with his super strength was risky; he was more likely to cause damage like breaking ribs, but the force was also more likely to successfully dislodge whatever what was stuck.

Tony gasped, taking in breaths, holding his neck because it felt like something was stuck, stopping him from breathing.

“Tony? Hang on,” Steve said desperately, holding him more firmly in his arms, as Tony made croaky sounds and struggled. “Tony, it’s me, please, calm down,” Steve wrestled to calm Tony, and it seemed to work. Steve took a deep breath and thrust back into his abdomen again. A harrowing cough came from Tony, and he was bent over, spitting things out.

“Tony! Tony,” Steve could only repeat his name. He put a hand on Tony’s back and rubbed it, as small bits of rubble came out of him as he coughed it all up onto the floor.

Then he heard the comms again, and decided to pick it up.

“Capt, we’re coming.” “Guys?” He said through the comms.

“Finally, he decides to speak,” Clint’s dry voice came through. Steve looked over to Tony, who looked up at him. He looked rough.

“St-st-” he spluttered.

“It’s ok,” Steve said, and was back on the comms again, “Guys, where are you, we need you to land here _now_ , we’re by the lake.” Tony was looking worse, and Steve rested his hand on his back, as Tony suddenly coughed again, and he spit blood out. Steve heard the quinjet coming, and looked around wildly.

“Tony, it’s ok, it’s gonna be ok,” Steve said solemnly, holding onto him as he went into a coughing fit again, his face scrunched up, in pain, discomfort, fear.

“It’s ok.”

“St-Steve,” Tony tried to speak.

“Sh, it’s ok, the team are on their way, Bruce and the doctors will be able to help, ok?”

“You-you saved me…” Steve looked into his earnest eyes. “Only temporarily. You need to hold on Tony,” Steve said, worry lines creasing his forehead.

“Guys, where the _hell_ are you,” Steve hissed through the slightly broken comms he was holding onto.

“The quinjet suffered damages, Steve, it’s kinda slow-”

“Well then hurry IT UP!”

“Hey, cool it, Cap.” _Clint._ Steve gritted his jaw, “Do you still need medic-”

“Holy _hell!_ DO WE NEED _MEDIC_?!” Steve lost it, yelling at the comms in front of him, before he scowled in disgust and threw it far away.

“No help,” Steve whispered, holding onto Tony who was looking at him…fondly.

“Language, Cap.”

“No, Tony…” Steve rubbed his back, supporting most of Tony’s weight, “Don’t…It’s gonna be okay.” Tears were forming in his eyes, and he couldn’t even help it.

“Di’nt know you…cared that…much,” Tony gasped, hiccupping, and holding onto Steve like a lifeline.

“Of course I do,” Steve responded, “How could you think any different?”

Tony gave him a thoughtful look.

“Tony, I-”

Tony coughed, sitting up and aiming towards the ground when he was sick. What came out was nightmarish. Tony felt how it looked like.

The quinjet slowed as it descended just above the lake, the door opening and platform opening up.

“They’re here, come on,” Steve said, gathering Tony up into a wobbly standing position, and helping him to walk. He was hunched over, looking faint all of a sudden, and wasn’t getting far. “Ok, you’re gonna have to forgive me for this,” Steve said, and Tony looked confused for about a second before Steve lifted him up and put him over his shoulder, holding onto his hip and leg, fireman style.

Tony groaned, but it might be to do with the whole upside-down thing. Steve jogged towards the carrier, inside the quinjet, finally, as the team around him filtered around, and the door closed. The warmer quinjet in contrast to the cold air outside was soothing, and Steve opened his eyes, very gently lifting Tony down and putting him onto the medic bed, his eyes rolling in his head, and strangely trying to grasp onto something, presumably Steve, so he stayed to hold his hand as he bent down, smoothing the hair out of his face. He looked around him. The others were staring.

“What are you looking at?”

Bruce stepped through, looking ruffled, then worried as he looked over Tony, conducting scans with the screen above his head.

“Clint, we need the hospital,” Bruce said, Steve looking worried as he held onto Tony.

“Really?” He turned around, frowning, “It would only take a bit longer to get back to-”

“ _Hospital_.” Steve looked daggers at Clint.

“O…kay,” Clint looked at him with wide eyes as he slowly slid around in his seat, setting the route.

“I’m sorry, Steve, about earlier,” Natasha said quietly, standing a small distance. Steve looked to her. He was tense; coiled up like a wire, and he could so easily snap, but it wasn’t her fault, it wasn’t anyone’s, and that wouldn’t do any help right now. He just needed Tony to be safe, to be _ok_ , to keep beating and breathing as he stayed with him, and preferably keep clenching his hand back too. Cause it felt warm, and _safe_ , and reassuring. And it was something he could get used to. Right now, the knot inside his chest was beginning to loosen, knowing that Tony was gonna be alright, as they took him somewhere he could get better, safe, and Steve would finally be able to breathe again.


	3. "Squeeze my hand if you can hear me."

“Squeeze my hand if you can hear me.”

Steve said, quietly but so it could clearly be heard in the small hospital room, with light pouring in the window, showing the countryside outside.

But Tony’s form remained unmoving.

Tony, however, was very much conscious. Just not in the way Steve would know. He wished he could squeeze his hand back, or ask him, rather, why the _fuck_ _are you holding my hand with your clammy fingers as if you’re never going to let go_? But he couldn’t do anything. He was paralysed, like in a dream, like he was dying, even floating in a bottomless pit sometimes, and other times contrastingly rigidly still, and it was _maddening_.

He drifted in and out of consciousness, which was really annoying, because he could finally be able to understand what people in the room were talking about, and then things would become fuzzy, and quieter, and then he’d be out like a light, and had no clue how to tell how much time had passed by the next time he ‘woke up’ which was different to them to what it meant to him.

One time, Tony called out to Steve, and Steve had smiled brightly and come over to him, but then it went blurry and fuzzy and he realised it was probably a dream. His mind was getting achy. And when he was awake, he also realised he was in pain in several parts of his body, and he damn hoped they had him on pain meds.

“…Feel pain?” Someone’s voice. It was familiar.

“Not sure…don’t want to administer unnecessary…morphine.” A doctor (presumably) said.

NO, put the damn morphine _ON_! He would have actually _pleaded_ if he were able to.

“We’ll keep it on a low dose though, just in case.”

He could hear them more clearly now. His chest hurt and there were throbbing pains throughout his stomach, at least he thinks it’s there anyway; his throat is uncomfortably filled with a tube, so everything’s touch and go. He tried to wiggle his toes. He thought he did, and he got excited, but he heard voices around him, and they still sounded glum, and far away, and he’d assumed he probably hadn’t moved, otherwise they would have got excited.

“It’s ok, I’ll stay with him.” Steve’s voice. His deep velvety voice is close, which for some reason made Tony smile. Or want to smile. Or smile in his head – whatever.

“You sure?” Romanoff?

“Yea.”

“Ok, well as long as you’re not guilt-laden and you don’t sulk for too long…”

Steve let out a little huff and smiled at Natasha. “No, really. I just wanna stay in case he wakes up.”

“Which he will,” she reassured, squeezing his shoulder.

Steve nodded, and grimaced goodbye as she left the room and he was left alone, looking out the window on the other side of the room, and shuffling his hands on the bed next to Tony’s limp hands, hoping, waiting, not knowing what to do or what to say.

Steve had only gone to get some coffee, and was talking with Happy, who was here with Rhodey, when machines from inside Tony’s room was beeping where a doctor was already monitoring him. The doctor snapped to attention and called for his team, and before they knew what was happening they were being ushered out of the way as multiple staff went in Tony’s room and swarmed him with machines, and they couldn’t see what was happening. Happy was shouting at some staff, asking them worriedly what was going on, and Rhodey was trying to get a peek in the window. Steve just stood there, frozen to the spot, his heart feeling like it had stopped, as he watched them carefully do their jobs. Most of what they were saying was lost on him, but he still listened.

“BP’s dropping…He’s drowning!”  
“Drowning?” Rhodey said incredulously, “What the hell? What’s happening?”  
Steve felt sick, and gripped onto a chair, his hands clenching with dread.

\--

Tony knew there was pain. Distantly, he felt the scorching through his lungs and throat, and the bile in his stomach. But then he luckily passed out.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but he was aware that his dream about introducing Steve to his parents while he was on morphine and in considerable pain, was, well, a dream. Then Bruce helped him out of it, thankfully, and he woke up. The first thing he noticed was the hospital smell of the sheets next to him, and then someone who smelled a bit sweaty. Steve was talking, and then Tony realised there was a big sweaty hand clamped around his tightly.

“…So I just, um. I hope y-you get better. Even if it is just to shout at me. To reject me. I don’t care. Just wake up. _Please_ ,” Steve said mournfully, and then sniffed, and Tony realised he was crying. He was trying to decipher what he was saying. He seemed to be the only person in the room.

“You will be worth saving every time and er…” Steve tried to regain his voice, swallowing thickly, taking a deep breath. “And I really...I just wish you could hear me now, hell, maybe you can, but I need you to know that. And I know this sounds like I’m a teenage boy pining, but…for some reason, I don’t think I can do this without…No. I don’t think I _want_ to do it without you. I mean, being love with you ain’t easy you know, so, er, come back to me. When you can. So we can talk and you can make fun of me or…But know that I’m here. And I sure as hell ain’t going anywhere, not as long as you need someone to remind you how much you’re needed, wanted, _loved_.”

Tony felt like he was choking on air.

\--

Steve was still holding onto Tony’s hand the next day. He had gone to get some sleep, but he didn’t feel well rested.

“S-s.”

Steve gasped and looked up, seeing that Tony’s lips had moved; it wasn’t his imagination.

“Tony? Oh my god. Nurse! Please…” He called out, and pressed the button on his bed to get their attention.

Tony began to choke around the tube down his throat.

“Hey, hey, it’s ok, don’t talk, it’s ok, they’re coming,” Steve said in a rush, wide-eyed, trying to reassure Tony, whose scared eyes were now open and looking around.

A nurse and a doctor came in and slowly removed the tube from his throat. Steve had to move out of the way for them to do their thing, to make sure he was okay.

Rhodey and the others came immediately and the doctors were talking to them and Tony, who was responding well, they said. There was a problem with his lung they had fixed, which happened during the explosion, but he still needed to be monitored in the hospital for a little while. The doctors told Steve it was a miracle that he was able to revive Tony, and it was because of him that he was alive, even if not in great shape. Steve had been thinking there was more that could have been done. But he was just hit with the reality of it all – that Tony really could have, honestly, died. For good. Lung too damaged beyond repair.

After a while, Tony wanted to talk to Steve.

Tony grabbed onto his hand as he came to stand next to his bed, which made him smile.

“Steve,” his voice was still small, which annoyed him. “Eheh,” he cleared his throat, tapping his chest. “Um, I er, this might be a bit awkward, but…I heard what you said. Well, some things anyway.”

“What?”

“They told me I’ve been in a coma for like three weeks. Felt like it, too.”

“So, you were…you could hear me?”

Tony nodded.

“Oh.”

“Yea.”  
“Um…” Steve sat down, and dragged the chair closer to Tony, looking into his eyes, as he smiled back, his hair ruffled, with a thin tube attached through his nose. He was doing better.

“How are you? How do you feel?”

Tony nodded, “Yea, I mean, not bad, considering.”

Steve nodded as well, swallowing. “I meant what I said.”

Tony looked at him for a beat, and he looked vulnerable.

“So…you’re really. Not going anywhere?” Tony asked.

Steve softened. “No. I – not if you don’t want me to.”  
“I don’t want you to.”

“Well, good, cause that…would have been a little awkward.”

Tony smiled at him, enjoying the adorable look on Steve’s face.

“You really…think you love me.”

“I don’t think. I’m pretty sure I know. It’s like – like I can’t escape it, now I’ve realised it, you know what I mean?”

Tony nodded, though he didn’t know entirely what he meant.

“Do you want to like-” Tony was stuck for words somehow. Gosh, this whole thing was awkward.

“What?” Steve asked. Just then, Rhodey knocked on the window and they turned to look at him. Turns out he’d been listening a bit in on their conversation, with the door being a little open.

“He means he wants you too, you dumbass!” Rhodey said, “You two have serious communication issues. Honestly,” Rhodey turned to the others, who laughed as he rolled his eyes, and then they filtered away to give them some privacy as Tony glared at them.

“He’s right.”

Steve held up Tony’s hand and kissed it tenderly.

“That’s how it’s gonna be, huh?” Tony asked, lifting an eyebrow.

Steve smiled joyfully, “Oh, that’s how it’s gonna be.”


End file.
